As far as American muscle cars go the reincarnated Challengers and Chargers are pretty slick, but I’m not a Mopar guy I’m a Ford man. The redesigned Mustangs have largely disappointed me, with the Shelby GT500 (which sells for about 46K) being a whole entire story altogether. The Shelby GT500 is one tasty automobile and I’d be happy to play the part of McQueen and take on the Charger any day.

When I first met Alexander Olch a few years ago about working on his PR I gave him a hard time about his dueling career paths. “Are you a tie designer or a filmmaker?” I asked. With a grin he replied, “both!” it took a little convincing but we did end up working with Olch for his PR (and he still remains a client). Just yesterday I saw Mr. Olch’s writer, director, filmmaker role come to fruition when his documentary The Windmill Movie opened at Film Forum. The film is a portrait of Richard Rogers — Alexander’s film professor and mentor at Harvard — that is culled from decades worth of archival footage that Richard shot in an effort to tell the story of his life. Olch does an amazing job of putting together the long-over-due tale of Dick Rogers’ of professional jealousy, a resented privileged upbringing and the struggle to make it all into a film.

There are a lot of options out there for canvas sneakers these days. Seeing as I tend to be resistant to change, I have continued to buy and wear Sperry Stripers. The one brand that has caught my eye and made me want to update my footwear game is California’s SeaVees. The company recently collaborated with industry color specialists on a special group of simple Pantone inspired designs. Ironically the new Pantone White release — which celebrates the Summer solstice — is devoid of all color. Just like I like it.

I noticed recently that wherever I went with Lancey (my two year old Springer Spaniel), people would recognize her. I didn’t put two-and-two together until I saw the new issue (#62) of The FADER. After the Urban Outfitters thing and now this, that is one famous dog. Many thanks to the good folks over at FADER, I really appreciate the support — It means a lot to me. Now I’ve got to go move my tank before the meter expires. -MW

Take Ivy: the saga continues. Mr. David Colman weighs in on everyone’s favorite book in today’s New York Times. There was even a mention of some website called A Continuous Lean (dumb name) that has been instrumental in keeping Take Ivy prices high. Read the full article here.

My copy of Take Ivy as shot by The New York Times.

It’s a fake. A replica, an impostor and I don’t care, it’s fucking cool. So is Nick.

Mr. Maggio aka Mr. A Time to Get stopped by my office in Beverly Hills (it’s actually my business partner Ali’s office) while I was working out that way last week. Eventually the conversation turned to cars and Nick told me about his Speedster. Growing up in Ohio there was a guy down the street from me that had a white Porsche 356 replica built on a Volkswagen chassis that I always loved. Nick’s car was custom built on an original 1956 VW frame by the guys at Automotive Legends in California, who also make reproduction versions of the Porsche 550 Spyder and a 550 Coupe. Speaking of the 550 Mr. Maggio says, “[I] test drove the 550 Spyder and it was crazy FAST.”

The gents from the Los Angeles based brand Apolis Activism and I got together during my recent trip to the west coast to shoot the shit, drink German beer and hang out at their studio. Much has been said about Apolis in the press as of late, with the company garnering much praise for their collaborations with Filson, and more recently with vintage boardshorts maker Kanvas by Katin.

Walking into the company’s loft like offices (complete with bunk beds, kitchen and a bathtub full of surf boards) you almost start to feel jealous that you haven’t been invited to hang out sooner. The brothers Raan, Stenn and Shea (not the one pictured below, that is the other Shea) Parton were drawn to the industrial style office space in downtown LA’s “arts district” because of the fact that it is live / work facility. This unique set-up enabled the guys to keep the overhead relatively low while they worked on developing the burgeoning company.